The Philadelphia Flyers on Monday named Ron Hextall assistant general manager and director of hockey operations. He'd been an assistant GM under Dean Lombardi in Los Angeles and helped build the 2012 Stanley Cup champions—not coincidentally, with former Flyers Jeff Carter and Mike Richards leading the way.

Now, Hextall is headed back to where his career as a player and executive began—he led the Flyers to the 1987 Stanley Cup finals and won the Vezina Trophy as a rookie, then rejoined the organization as a scout and assistant GM before leaving for Los Angeles in 2006.

Part of the reason for his departure, at the time: it was clear that Holmgren was the heir apparent to Bobby Clarke. In the seven years since, Holmgren has built a Cup finals team of his own, but also made a series of risky, high-profile signings and trades with decidedly mixed results. At the moment, Philadelphia is capped out and coming off a playoff-less season.

Holmgren's offseason plan centered around buying out Ilya Bryzgalov and Danny Briere, then using that resultant cap space on, essentially, center Vincent Lecavalier and defenseman Mark Streit. He also finished an extension for star center Claude Giroux and signed goalie Ray Emery to replace Bryzgalov/split time with Steve Mason. The team still has a patchwork defense and no long-term answer in goal—so while the Flyers should be better in 2013-14, they're more than likely a low-end playoff team.

So do the math—if Holmgren isn't under a meaningful amount of pressure, he should be, and the team just hired a franchise icon who, by all accounts, could've had his pick of other GM jobs in the near future. If the succession plan isn't in place, it should be.